Bulldog Communications has unveiled an unbundled 2Mbps ADSL service aimed at home users. Available to some 400,000 punters in central London, the Primetime 2000 service costs £39.99 a month.

Service activation costs £99 although punters can get it for £49 if they sign up for the service before the end of January.

However, the faster speed is only available during off-peak hours - weeknights (6pm - 8am), all weekend (6pm Friday - 8am Monday), and Bank holidays. During the rest of the time the service runs at 512kbps.

Of course, this is exactly the kind of innovative product that comes from infrastructure competition. Unfortunately, local loop unbundling (LLU) hasn't been a great success in the UK.

A recent report from the Government's Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) concluded that LLU had "not had a significant impact on competition". At the end of August there were just 1,100 unbundled lines in the UK, it said. ®